Love Remembered
by KatLeePT
Summary: On the verge of their new life together, Rumpelstiltskin tries to remember when he first fell in love with Belle. RumBelle. Spoilers!


It's no secret that he's older than everybody else in this sleepy, little town. He was older before they were even brought to this land, planning the curse that brought them here before some of their parents were even thought of. He uses those years to his advantage. He's learned things over the centuries he's lived that none of the others know. That knowledge adds to his power, not just making him but also keeping him the most powerful Sorcerer.

He's earned the name of the Dark One through over a century of turmoil. He's fought hard to survive and clawed his way to the top, retaining secrets and using them always to his advantage. He's seen so many things that the others don't even know exists. He's endured more than they can ever imagine. He's done so much, and yet a part of him thinks he never really lived until a certain Princess came into his life.

He remembers that day well, he thinks, turning the cup he holds around in his hand and, for a second's fleeting fancy, imagining it to be the one with the chip in it that means so much to them both. That Princess who entered his life and forced him finally to wander out of his darkness, the same young woman who broke the cup of whence he now thinks, is the very one who's made him feel more alive than he's ever felt before.

She wasn't the first to try to reach him through his darkness. She wasn't the first to try to help him with his son. She wasn't the first to stand up to him, nor even the first woman he loved, although he's never loved any one as grandly and fully as he does her. Rumpelstiltskin always has many thoughts running around in his cunning mind. There's always this or that foil to plot or curse to break. There's always something that needs his attention, something that could harm Belle or take from them this happiness they've finally earned.

For a moment, he wonders if he has truly earned it at last. He knows villains don't get happy endings, and although he's tried to be good for Belle's sake, he's had to do some things that even she would consider horrible. His grip tightens on the mug. He had to do it, he thinks. He had to kill Zelena. He had to keep his promise to his son.

Thunder rumbles outside, and he steers his mind clear from those dark thoughts. He doesn't regret killing the Witch, and the only reason he ever would is if Belle was to discover his deceit and turn from him. She says she'll never leave him again. She says she'll always love him, but he's heard those promises before. Worse yet, he could scarcely blame her if she did finally turn from his wickedness. She is, after all, so pure, good, and beautiful. She should never have to touch any one as dark and lowly as he.

Yet, she chooses to touch him. She chooses to love him. There was no doubt in her mind, eyes, or heart when she accepted his proposal. She wants to marry him as badly as he wants to make her his in all the ways the world can see. She already is his, and he is hers. They have been for a long time, but that's what's troubling him now.

He turns back into his mind, turns back the pages of the years he's lived, turns back to those first few moments with her. He didn't love the girl when she first came to stay with him. She annoyed him. She aggravated him to the point it is a wonder he didn't kill her and get another servant girl to wait on him. But he didn't. Why? he wonders. Why didn't he kill her? He didn't love her then.

When, exactly, he ponders again, _did_ he come to love her? He'd like to include something about that in his vows to her in their upcoming ceremony, but try as he might, he can not remember. He remembers softening slowly toward her. He remembers being amazed at her audacity to stand up to him, to even free a thief whose life had rightfully been his. She did everything she could to stop him from killing Robin, and in the end, even though he had the very ground swallow her, she succeeded.

He was still furious with her. He still didn't love her. Even when he freed her from her captivity and she rushed into his arms and hugged him more tightly and sweetly than he'd ever been hugged before in all of his existence, he didn't love her. He was touched. He was bemused. He was shocked, and for the first time in his life since losing Bae, he was warm.

But he still didn't love her then. When did it start? he wonders, still turning the cup around in his hand. When did his feelings for her begin to change? What actually was the beginning of their love? He continues to think back, pouring over, in his mind, every moment he spent with her that he can remember.

That's the problem, though, he's forced to realize. His mind isn't what it used to be. He's shared it with too many and endured too much, especially through all the trials and tribulations he went through to be with Bae again. Every one thinks his mind is well once more, now that he's free of Zelena, but he's far from being whole mentally.

Something strange races through Rumpelstiltskin's blood. He refuses to acknowledge it as fear and tries again, instead, to remember the beginning, to recall that exact moment when he first fell in love with his soul mate. He schemes. He ponders. He thinks like he hasn't in a long time.

He remembers looking into her eyes, so big, blue, and innocent, when she broke the cup. He remembers seeing the fear therein and wishing the fair creature didn't have to be so afraid of him while also giggling over the fact that breaking a mere cup seemed to terrify this woman who had stood up to her father, her whole kingdom, and even he himself, the Dark One, and chosen to come with him. He remembers so many of the nice things she did for him, the way she used to worry when he didn't come home when she thought he should, and how greatly that aggravated him. He remembers how she kept standing in the way of his turning darker.

He remembers her lurking in the shadows of his castle, in _his_ shadows, and trying to get closer to him, trying to learn more about him so that she might learn how to break his curse. He remembers the ways she's looked at him when she's been worrying over him, those beautiful, blue eyes so full of love and concern for he, a lowly Imp who could never deserve True Love. He remembers wanting to do something nice for her, planning and plotting the library, and then her reaction when he gave it to her.

He remembers the lilting, comforting sound of her voice as she read to him. He remembers hearing her read late at night in the castle when she would read aloud to herself just to have the sound of another voice around her. He remembers thinking she just didn't want to hear his voice for he scared her so, and yet he remembers, quite clearly, that he actually scared her very little.

He remembers the gentility with which she tended to his wounds when he allowed her to do so. He recalls catching her in the library and feeling her heart racing as did his own. He remembers dancing with her and loving her and losing her and then finding her again to love her once more, not that he'd ever stopped.

Their romance had certainly had its trials, but never once, once he started loving her, had Rumpelstiltskin stopped. Even when she'd angered him, even when he'd purposefully scared her away from him, even when he'd feared caring for her might intervene with his plan to get his son back . . . Never once did he stop loving her.

But when did he start? he wonders again, looking out the window at the gray sky. When, exactly, did the annoyance and the aggravation and the anger he'd felt at her begin to turn to love? What really had been the start of their relationship not as master and slave or boss and servant or even friends but as budding True Loves? Everybody knew when Charming and Snow got their start, but when had he and Belle been given theirs?

The sudden racket of loud voices all talking at once and boots stamping break into his reverie. Rumpelstiltskin looks up, but before he can turn toward the door, he catches sight of Belle. His beautiful, sweet Belle is finally on her way to meet him, but she's getting soaked! He doesn't know when the rain started; it doesn't matter. What matters is that his Princess needs him.

He leaves Granny's in a flash, steering through the Dwarves who have just come in and ignoring them completely. He could easily use his magic to stop the rain or at least conjure an umbrella over Belle's precious head, but he knows she doesn't want him using magic. So, instead, he runs to her, runs out through the rain and the wind and the lightning, and with thunder smashing above their heads, he nearly rips off his coat in his rush to take it off and wrap it around her.

She's protesting and laughing at the same time; he can barely hear her voice over the roar of the thunder and rising wind. He starts to lift her into his arms, but she stops him, somehow standing her ground against him. He looks at her in surprise, and through her gay laughter, she manages to speak to him, her eyes shining and raindrops glistening on her upturned face. "I'm fine, Rumpel!" she assures him. "It's just a little rain!"

Just a little rain indeed! A storm is brewing, and here she is out in it, laughing and talking as though she's not being drenched to the bone, as though they have all the time in the world, as though the last few weeks don't still haunt them! But there's something contagious in her laughter, something that soon has his lips turning up and opening in laughter, as well.

He holds her beautiful, smiling face in his hands, and it is then that he realizes. It was never just one thing, or one incident, that made him fall in love with this wonderful, stubborn, beautiful, determined, bold, dashing, and utterly amazing woman! The beginning doesn't matter, and though the last few weeks have been hard and the death of his son will always haunt him, in the end, his time spent being held captive and abused by Zelena doesn't matter. His time being dead doesn't even really matter, not in the grand scope of things.

What does matter is that he loves her, and that, as amazing as it is, she loves him just as much. He has found his one True Love, and they _are_ going to get their happy ending. They've already started on it! They're both laughing and being soaked as he lifts her head gently and kisses her lips. He sweeps his mouth gently, almost reverently, across hers once, twice, three times before she more firmly captures his lips with her own.

There in the rain they stand, kissing and loving one another while the world looks on. She knows everybody in Granny's in gawking and doesn't care, but for once, he doesn't notice the world. He doesn't think about the darkness within or all the bad things he has already brought and still could bring to her. He thinks only of how much he loves this woman, and how much Belle loves him, and how they now have eternity, or at least the remaining span of her lifetime, to spend together. Then he lifts her into his arms and carries her home, their dinner forgotten, the world forgotten, but their love remembered for always.

The End


End file.
